The Jelly Experiments

By Alice | Published: April 15, 2012

I got fixed on the idea of coming up with a grownup striped jelly recipe that I could make both for my sister’s birthday, and the wedding of two friends where they were having a pudding competition. I experimented over about two months. Striped jelly (or ‘jello’) isn’t particularly a new thing but I didn’t want to use packet jelly. I did many flavour experiments by mixing juice with gelatin: grape, mango, pear, spiced blackberry, apple, strawberry, cherry, and probably more I can’t remember. It seemed to be that the more acidic fruits wouldn’t set that well, and some of the combinations were a bit odd. I also experimented with my jelly mould and bought this swirling shape cake tin. It is one of those Nordic Ware pans, I really covet the village, the trees, and the acorn pan too :)

This is the first experiment in the mould, strawberry and cream layers.


After all the experiments we decided the best flavour was cherry and condensed milk, here it is at my sister’s birthday, we had it with local G&D’s ice cream. It went down well and was gluten free as is needed for half my family. I left it in the fridge until the last minute and it was difficult to get out of the tin so the bottom layer got a bit damaged but I don’t think that mattered.


And here at the wedding. It was really fun to try the other desserts too, the really professional looking green cheesecake is by my friend Emilie, so tasty!

I don’t have a recipe to share per se as the instructions would vary depending on what the juice and setting agent of choice is, the basic idea is that the stripes are done by alternating two different jelly flavours, waiting for each layer to set before adding the next. There are however some tips that I do have:

  • Use a little more of the setting agent than the packet suggests if you need it to hold an unusual shape.
  • Leave lots of time! Each layer needs to be pretty solid before the next layer can go on.
  • Don’t pour the next layer on but instead use a ladle or spoon. If you just pour the impact can damage the layer below.
  • Grease the inside of the mould lightly with a flavourless oil to help the jelly come out of the mould.
  • If the jelly won’t come out of the mould hold the mould in hot water for a few seconds. Note that this may mean some of the jelly will melt so upend the jelly over a sink.
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    8 Comments

    1. Caroline
      Posted April 15, 2012 at 5:47 pm | Permalink

      Amazingggg! Would absolutely demolish a slice of that. I’ve been wanting to experiment with jelly too. And who won the pudding competition?! That wedding looks so lovely. x

      • Alice
        Posted April 16, 2012 at 8:58 pm | Permalink

        In the end they decided that it would be too difficult to decide a winner and we all got prizes, I think that was a good idea, all the desserts were really great and so many people made the effort :)

    2. Lucie
      Posted April 15, 2012 at 8:50 pm | Permalink

      oh wow that looks amazing!!!

    3. Emilie
      Posted April 15, 2012 at 10:49 pm | Permalink

      Thanks for the lovely compliment about my cheesecake, though I have to admit the idea for mine came out of a book and didn’t require half so much time, dedication and inventiveness. Your jelly looked stunning and tasted awesome too. Definitely the talk of the evening.

      • Alice
        Posted April 16, 2012 at 8:59 pm | Permalink

        Well I think it is very cool that just like that you can pull off something that tasted and looked so great! :)

    4. Simon Halliday
      Posted April 16, 2012 at 8:16 am | Permalink

      Nice blog Alice! Really interesting desserts! Got linked here this morning when Mark sent round an email to the Jordan Hill crew saying thank you for his card and present. Keep up the great pics and cooking!

      • Alice
        Posted April 16, 2012 at 9:00 pm | Permalink

        Thanks Simon! Hope all is well at Jordan hill :)